Quickie Bio:
Benjamin is one of the very few completely normal people on the show. He arrives in Royston Vasey to stay with his Aunty Val and Uncle Harvey for one night as he plans to meet his friend Martin for a hiking trip. Unfortunately, Martin has a run-in at the local shop, and never meets up with Benjamin. Although he wants to leave Royston Vasey, Harvey and Val manipulate him into staying longer and longer. His various attempts to leave Royston Vasey include a "misunderstanding" with Barbara. When he eventually does get away, he too makes a fateful stop by the Local Shop...

Series Two finds Benjamin escaping from his ordeal at the Local Shop without his memory. Harvey and Val take him in again and hatch a plot to keep him there forever as some kind of pet, including drugging him and sending faked postcards to his family. Benjamin finally makes his escape during the height of the nosebleed scare, and when his memories are triggered the crowds mistakenly believe that the proprietors of the Local Shop have caused the plague.

Useless Trivia:

Benjamin's plight at his aunt and uncle's house is loosely based on Jeremy Dyson's experiences staying with relatives when he was younger (exaggerated, of course). He was told to make himself comfortable, yet there were a lot of unknown of rules to be followed and he accidentally locked one of his relatives out of the house one night due to the complicated lock-system.

In Series 2 when Benjamin escapes from the local shop, he is dressed to look like Balou the Bear (when he's disguised as a monkey) from The Jungle Book (apparently Tubbs and Edward dressed him that way to entertain David).

The trapping and keeping of Benjamin during Series 2 is a homage to Stephen King's Misery.

Appears in:Series 1, Series 2, The Christmas Special, Live at Drury Lane

Played By:Steve Pemberton

Quickie Bio:
Harvey and his family can be described as grotesque, weird, and "anal retentive". He breeds toads, is a strong believer in Aqua Vitae, and has a plethora of household rules. He was teased as a child because of his facial warts -- called "Harvey Toad Face" or "Toad Face Denton", so he came to love that to which he was compared. He's strangely obsessed with keeping his guests from indulging in "the pleasures of the palm" when they are alone. His heart's desire is for a self-lowering lavatory seat. His most prized toads are a pair named Sonny and Cher, however they meet an untimely demise when Chloe and Radclyffe decide to play Toad-In-The-Middle with Benjamin. Harvey eventually decides to keep Benjamin as some sort of pet...

In The Christmas Special, A Victorian version of Harvey can be on the street collecting money for charity.

Harvey and Val (and their treatment of Benjamin) is loosely based on Jeremy Dyson's experiences staying with relatives when he was younger (exaggerated, of course). He was told to make himself comfortable, yet there were a lot of unknown of rules to be followed and he accidentally locked one of his relatives out of the house one night due to the complicated lock-system.

Quotes:

In this house...

In this house we wage a constant battle against the microbe and the germ.

Micturate Benjamin, micturate

So join me then, and drink, so we may become more like him and his batrachian friends!

Appears in:Series 1, Series 2, The Christmas Special, Live at Drury Lane

Played By:Mark Gatiss

Quickie Bio:
Auntie Val seems sweet and caring, however she firmly believe in her husband's strange house rules. She grew quite attached to her nephew Benjamin during his brief stay, and missed him quite a bit after he left. Upon his return, she wasn't very willing to let him go again.

In the Christmas Special, we learn that Val (along with most of the female population of Royston Vasey) is a member of "Solutions" -- a group that helps wives solve their problems using a mix of voodoo and witchcraft. This all takes place in Charlie's dream, however, so Solutions may not actually exist.

Useless Trivia:

If I'm hearing the DVD commentary correctly, the scene where Val slides into the scene and back out again behind Benjamin (Series 1, Episode 2) is a reference to the movie The Innocents where Peter Wyngarde does the same.

Val's signature braid is missing from Series 1, Episode 1.

Harvey and Val (and their treatment of Benjamin) is loosely based on Jeremy Dyson's experiences staying with relatives when he was younger (exaggerated, of course). He was told to make himself comfortable, yet there were a lot of unknown of rules to be followed and he accidentally locked one of his relatives out of the house one night due to the complicated lock-system.

When Val calls to get the time (so they know when to lock the doors), the voice on the phone is that of producer Sarah Smith.

Quickie Bio:
Chloe and her twin sister, Radclyffe, have an unnerving ability to sneak up behind people, frequently scaring Benjamin and even their own mother. In series two they developed an uncanny ability to read minds. They definitely have a dark side, which enables them to "befriend" Farmer Tinsel's scarecrow, blackmail Benjamin into playing with them, and eventually trap their own parents in the amphibarium.

Useless Trivia:

The twins' characters are loosely based on the scary twins from Steven King's The Shining (particularly when they keep popping up behind Benjamin in Series 1, Episode 4.

Quickie Bio:
Radclyffe and her twin sister, Chloe, have an unnerving ability to sneak up behind people, frequently scaring Benjamin and even their own mother. In series two they developed an uncanny ability to read minds. They definitely have a dark side, which enables them to "befriend" Farmer Tinsel's scarecrow, blackmail Benjamin into playing with them, and eventually trap their own parents in the amphibarium.

Useless Trivia:

The twins' characters are loosely based on the scary twins from Steven King's The Shining (particularly when they keep popping up behind Benjamin in Series 1, Episode 4.

Quickie Bio:
When the Dentons trick Benjamin into thinking that "nude day" was underway, Dr. Mekos arrives at the conclusion that Benjamin is indeed quite disturbed and needs to be on medication (a strong sedative).

Dr. Mekos was supposed to perform Barbara's sex-change operation, however he was in a skiing accident and couldn't make it, so Dr. Chinnery filled in instead...